Congratulations and Thank You to Yarimar Rosa Rodriguez, our September Advisor of the Month!

Yari, an instructor in Clinical Psychology at University of Puerto Rico, answered our call last month encouraging more Mendeley presentations by scheduling half a dozen presentations over the next few months, including talks at a large conference. Wow! 

She’s in for the long-haul in academia, starting research at the young age of 17. “My area of research includes health psychology, well-being and more specific at the moment, youth healthy development,” said Yari. Her new research proposal looks into the pathways to resilience and optimism (and other developmental domains like emotional, behavioral and moral/character development) and how they work within the school culture, she said.

“So I’m pretty excited with this new endeavor and off-course with the HUGE help of Mendeley to keep on track with my research proposal.”

 

How long have you been on Mendeley?

You know what? I don’t remember LOL! That’s because it feels like been part of Mendeley all my life. I was a trainer for Thomson Routers Endnote, and while doing a search (I think it was 4 years ago) I discover Mendeley. Almost immediately, I made the switch from one to the other and start to train myself. Only two months after that, I became an Advisor, and I been spreading the word since then.

How does Mendeley influence your research?

The best influence is the sense of connection when I’m looking for some article. That wonderful icon of related research on Mendeley Web is one of my favorite’s tools. Everything is connected and makes sense to me when it’s organize on my library.

Also, on this time of “publish or perish” using Mendeley from the word processor is crucial to be effective and sharp when submitting a manuscript.

Third, Mendeley is part of my research designs when and working with systematic literature review. Is so easy to organize the articles, read them on my iPad app and take notes and then transfer them to NVivo for Mac. Most of the work it’s done on Mendeley, and at the end, I just need to code and retrieve the data and my results.

Why did you decide to become an Advisor?

I just know that everyone has to know about it and to stop paying for a service that can be free, intuitive with a beautiful and attractive interface and why not?… get connected to others doing the same thing. It’s a win-win situation. There’s no other option that gave me all that Mendeley have. And in order to give back, I volunteer as a Beta tester and have a blast contributing with the development of the tools. It make me feel part of the family, a great sense of belonging.

How have you been spreading the word about Mendeley?

First of all, Mendeley it’s mandatory on my Research Methods class. I have open groups for my classes and students are encouraged and allowed to share articles. They also have to create their own groups for they research project.

Second, I have an arrangement with the Academic Center for Technology Assistance in order to have two workshops per semester. Those are open to the public and students and professors are permitted to register… those are always full!!!

Also I have the opportunity this next November to promote Mendeley during the Annual Convention of the Puerto Rican Psychological Association to approximately 300 students and researchers

What book are you reading at the moment and why?

Anna Karenina – I read it in high school but remember it vaguely. When Google made its tribute to Leo Tolstoy at the beginning of September I decide to get back to classic readings and downloaded on Kindle. It is refreshing to read something out of research or work and keep up with my English skills (since my first language is Spanish).

Any fun fact people might be surprised to learn about you?

I love to sell jewelry! Yes, it makes me to connect with others from a different perspective and establish relationships outside the academia.

What is the best part about being a researcher?

The best for me is the sense of discovery, to teach and to learn from others… especially from my students and research assistants.

And the worst?

The culture of competition that few colleagues engage sometimes that are derived from fame and not from quality nor competence… and the search of funding that can be strenuous sometimes 😉

What is the one thing you want people to know about Mendeley?

Research has not to be a scavenger hunt. It can be fun and systematic with few easy steps. If I have to choose a tool to just show to someone that one has to be The SAVE TO MENDELEY button. There’s a saying on my team: We love Mendeley just because that button on the tool bar!!! They actually want t-shirts that say We Love Mendeley.